At the tail end of last year I had the pleasure of facilitating a coaching practice session on a new course developed and delivered by my astute colleague Rebecca Williams. In the mop up for the session the topic of Johari’s window came up, and Bex reminded us that this exotic sounding tool actually sprung from the merging of the first names, Joe and Harry, the two guys who developed it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window

It’s one of those beautiful models that seem almost archetypal in their simplicity. The quadrants of a childlike window are divided into four sections that represent 

1. What everyone knows (arena)
2. What’s known to yourself (facade)
3. What’s known to others (your blind spots)
4. The unknown 

It’s applicable to pretty much anything that you might do in the field of self-development and particularly pertinent in feedback exercises. The Intellectual Property Office is testing out a variety of approaches for gathering and analysing 360 feedback and pleasingly coaching has been built into the heart of it.

I’ve been taking part in the trial (I’m in the group that could gather feedback in any way they wished, and who could then do with that feedback whatever they wanted), and also helping set up a third of the participants with coaches from within the IPO and from the wider Civil service network (to good feedback).

As a participant I opted to take a wider approach this time and asked a large number of colleagues (around 70) two simple questions and one optional extra. What do I do that you appreciate? What do I do that you don’t appreciate? (optional: What book am I?).

The optional question caused a bit of a split in opinion with half enjoying it and half absolutely hating it. A real Bovril of a question, but at least something which set mine apart from the deluge of other feedback requests. My favourite response was from Caroline, in my team, who said I’d be a blend of Sun Tsu’s Art of War (tactical) and Dr.Suess’ The Cat in the hat (madcap) – I’ll take that.*

The other feedback was very reminiscent of the school reports and annual reviews at work that I’ve had over the past 40 years, and can basically be summarised as “Mark talks too much”. This could be viewed as an admirable sense of consistency over the years, or a worrying lack of personal growth. I’ve battled with this over the years, and things ebb and flow. It’s something that I need periodic reminding of, as it seesaws between the arena part of the window, and my blind spot. I’ve been working on it again, and my colleagues have appreciated my efforts to dial my chatter back a bit. Much of this is around the idea that much of life isn’t one and done, it’s an ongoing pathway.

There were other nuggets in the replies which I’ve worked through with my boss and in a bit of a recent supervision session with the sage overview of our longtime supervisor James Clark and my insightful colleague Hazel Craven to help anchor and understand what to do with the, sometimes conflicting, feedback I’d gained.

Much of this also brings to mind what I often find myself doing in early sessions with coaching clients, helping them work out what ways they’re going to really, deeply explore the landscape of what’s going on for them before the next session. It’s really tricky to get to the nub of what to try and what to do, when you’ve not quite got to the heart of what is happening. Getting data. What’s happening? What’s actually happening? How regularly is it happening? Is it that significant, or does it feel that significant? The things under consideration are always different, but the core of needing to really understand the landscape remains.

Using Johari’s window to frame (boom tish) that conversation can be helpful too. 360 feedback can be just another regular corporate chore, or the Jiminy Cricket on your shoulder, reminding you to be good. But at its best, it is the chance to open up a conversation so that your colleagues can understand what makes you tick and you can get a glimpse at how you are viewed through their eyes. It is also when exploring this space that you both get to find out some of the stuff that wasn’t apparent to any of you, which is where the greatest potential for growth lies.

The early signs are that the people who got paired up with coaches found it really valuable to pick through what they’d gleaned with a completely impartial person. It’s so rare that you get to talk to someone who is really, really listening, but who also doesn’t have skin in the game. Their only purpose is to make sure that you get the space you need.

For me, with the feedback I got, it wasn’t clear whether I was acting differently in different fields deliberately, or whether I was being the same across the various strands of my work, but that what I was doing was landing differently. Having gleaned feedback that pointed towards this being a useful thing to scrutinise, I’ve become more aware of what I’m doing in those spaces subsequently. From that new data, I can look and decide what things to try and do to make sure what I say and do lands where I want it to. Succinctly.

*I got quite a few people comparing me to War and Peace too…